The Murray Pioneer On-line

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

No fish kill? Not yet
The fish kill in Lake Bonney may indeed have been caused by cold weather.
However, this winter has certainly been no colder than any others - in fact it seems to have been somewhat milder than we've experienced in recent years.
And if the lake holds less water, then naturally a higher percentage of that water will be cold, which could also be one of the reasons behind what can reasonably be termed 'an unusually high' number of fish mortalities.
But even in the unlikely event that water depth and/or quality had nothing to do with the deaths, one thing is certain: if Lake Bonney is blocked off from the Murray, it will keep receding and Barmera will have a legitimate fish kill.
The 1000 or 2000 boney bream we've seen washed up over the past fortnight will be nothing compared to the scenes we can expect at the lake under that scenario.
And when the weather warms up, we'll have to contend with the smell.
But that's another story.